Neither more nor less

Friday, October 03, 2008

Latter Days of Summer

75 or so persons took to the stepped rude masonry seating at La Plaza Cultural to watch the Palin / Biden vice-presidential debate Thursday night .

There wasn't much excitement generated by the debaters and the popcorn supply disappeared too early . Some , though , did seem to be entertained at times , noticeably laughing at some of the debater's comments , usually those of Ms. Palin's .

Two thirds of the way through the debate , not too distant from the screen and assembled audience , red flashing lights were seen and sirens heard . Most present just ignored the excitement while continuing to watch and listen to the debaters . The activity of the several FDNY units seemed to be concentrated on the entrance of the restaurant at the corner of avenue C and 9th street . FDNY did not remain long at the scene and we do not know whether or not there was an actual fire .

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Coronation ....

The emperor Napoleon crowns himself by Jacques Louis David

At least Napoleon had the balls to just take the crown himself and place it on his own head .

Our noticeably megalomaniacal Mayor Mike seems to believe so much in his exceptional capacities for governing that he is thus irreplaceable and that it is necessary for the salvation of New York City for him to remain in office .

Unlike Napoleon though he has chosen the same path to enduring power that was chosen by the likes of a more subtlycalculating Hugo Chavez , Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler ; to name a few of our better known tyrants . These guys , though less brazenly than the ballsy Emperor , all chose to continue their reigns by doing whatever was necessary to make it appear as though they had gathered the will of the people to support a legitimate continuing personal political administration . These men all claimed that they were charged to rule more or less permanently , and legitimately so , by the will of the people as manifested in certain exceptional elections . This is what our mayor hopes to do by simply and very conveniently changing some law . .. and there will be appropriately placed gifts as inducements to vote in his favor , there always are with this mayor .

As was the case with Mr. Mussolini and Mr. Hitler , the business elite is also enthusiastically supportive of Mayor Mike's extended reign . Nothing new here , it was so in Gaius Julius Caesar's Rome too.

Does anyone remember that our first president , general George Washington , in times much more difficult than ours today ,with America's continued existence more threatened and uncertain , disbanded much of his continental army and also refused a third term as president . This aristocrat political leader put his faith in the people , democratic principles and a body of law and not himself to provide for and ensure the continued existence of America .

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

RMP on a 3rd Street Wall at Avenue B - Part 2

The Beginning of Mosaic Man's Latest Project on St. Marks Place ...

Jim may again be losing his apartment , he is having problems with considerable pain in his hip and he is short on cash but in spite of it all he is beginning a major new project . The indefatigable Mosaic Man will mosaic all the lamp posts on St. Marks Place between avenue A and 1st avenue . The first of the lamp posts to be treated can be found in the middle of the block on the north side of the street .

Drug Bust at the Window of Ray's Candy Store ...

Monday night at 7 pm with Francine sitting and watching up close , NYPD personnel apprehended 2 women at the window of Ray's Candy Store on what was , we suspect , a routine buy-and-bust operation .

One of the women apprehended , the one in the black shirt , was a drug counselor who had been trying to help the other woman . She was mistakenly cuffed in the confusion . She was shortly un-cuffed , released and left the scene .

Another male was seen in custody at the scene later . He and the one female remained in custody and were removed by police from the scene .

RMP on a 3rd Street Wall at Avenue B - Part 1 ...

Early tomorrow morning when the large white plastic film stencil is removed from the wall a white-line painting of a New York Police Dept. RMP ( radio motor patrol) should be revealed ; an image much like the small rendering above .

The Tribes Gather at 9 Bleecker St , the Yippie Museum , Saturday to Respond to the Problems Resulting from the Global Financial Meltdown ...

We have been told that there will be a gathering of the tribes at the Yippie Museum at 9 Bleecker St. this Saturday afternoon and evening , 2 pm to 8 pm , for a conference to discuss possible counter-cultural solutions to the problems created by the global financial meltdown . The Yippies invite everyone to attend , participate and be part of the solution .

The 6 hour conference will include music , meditations , numerous speakers from the counter-cultural community and an open-microphone session open to all .

We would like some sitar music , bongos and tablas , sweet wine , incense burning and cannabis combustion , Nehru jackets and tie-dye too... all by scented candle light .

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Paper taped to a window , considering our increasingly expensive neighborhood and our current financial uncertainty , perhaps today becomes an act more poignant and prophetic than it would have been even a year ago . Of course its money , this paper , and it was the instrument of protest for slacktivist John Penley at 282 Bowery Friday night .

The slacktivist protest--not an angry or combative encounter but an evening that went well for all--as we understand it was an attempt to point to the fact that everything material and otherwise here today in our downtown NYC , including "outsider" art works presented here by Lazarides Gallery of London , is measured in value in dollars , i.e. , paper money . Lots of money ; amounts large enough just to have a minimal dwelling space and food that most artists have been forced to leave this part of the city .

Even the artists with works displayed at this temporary gallery , outsiders as this exhibit seems to try to claim , are represented in a 2 week exhibit on the Bowery with pricing from $400 to $150,000 per piece ; with most works priced in the thousands of dollars. To us hardly prices associated with the work of true unknowns outside the system . You have to be part of it all to get this kind of change for your work .

Nothing new here concerning the financial and social ways of the art world but this exhibit is in fact an interesting show ; the works being diverse in spirit , theme , method and materials . It was refreshing to not be surrounded by white walls , squeaky clean floors and properly hushed conversations . Materially there was little difference between the inside of the gallery and the world outside on the Bowery sidewalk and street . A very large open door served to bring the street , sounds and all , into the gallery .

The slacktivists for a while did have a bit of a debate with the organizer of the show concerning their protest activities . The Lazarides Gallery people were concerned that their windows would be covered with dollar bills . This did not happen in fact as an enterprising scoundrel quickly scraped dollar bills from the window and absconded with a fist full of dollars into the night 3 separate times .

At the end of the protest passers-by were offering dollar bills in exchange for ones marked and taped to the window .

The police did stop to look at the event 3 times during the time that we were at the gallery . They had pre-positioned a stack of disassembled barricades just in case there was a crowd control problem .